Resource-oriented approaches to language learning include all languages of the students into the teaching and learning processes. They have been extensively tested in innovative projects and trainings (Mary & Young 2017; Putjata 2018) and appear particularly promising regarding raising multilingual awareness and increasing educational opportunities for multilingual students. In the implementation process of these new approaches into everyday school life, teacher education is considered as one of the main pillars. Lauridsen (2017) differentiates three dimensions in teacher education within the university: the institution itself, as the context and policy provider; the students, as the receiving party; and the educators who primarily carry out the educational process. Hence, the question arises as to how the resource-oriented approach to multilingualism is represented in these three dimensions. To answer this question for the German context we discuss different sets of data collected at universities that provide teacher training.
First, we present different ways of institutional implementation of multilingualism and L2 acquisition at German universities (Putjata et al. 2016), where a growing number of programs and projects have been devoted to a productive way of dealing with linguistic diversity. However, their focus is almost exclusively state language-oriented.
Second, we discuss teacher educators' conceptualizations of multilingualism according to Niedrig (2002) as presented through eight semi-structured interviews (Goltsev et al. in press). The findings reveal that the educators' perspectives seem to be reproductions of their own biographies and that the institutional framing tends to reinforce an already present monolingual mindset. At the same time, the results show multiple ways in which the interviewees still find spaces for multilingual practices within their teaching.
The third set of data deals with the experiences of 189 future teachers with different multilingual methods (Duarte & Günther-van der Meij 2018) during their university training. The results of non-parametric tests show that teacher students have little first-hand experience with most multilingual methods. However, there is a significant positive correlation between the experiences with some methods and the students' willingness to apply them in their later professional practice.
The combined analysis of these three sets of data allows a critical examination of the current state of teacher education regarding the dealing with a linguistically diverse classroom in Germany. It shows that first important steps have been taken towards a change in the monolingually oriented teacher education. However, further efforts are needed in order to implement a resource-oriented approach to multilingualism and language education.
Selected references
Duarte, J., & Günther-van der Meij, M. (2018). A Holistic Model for Multilingualism in Education. EuroAmerican Journal of Applied Linguistics and Languages 5(2), 24-43.
Niedrig, H. (2002). Strategien des Umgangs mit sprachlicher Vielfalt. Tertium comparationis 8, 1-13.
Putjata, G. et al. (2016). Möglichkeiten und Grenzen des Moduls ‚Deutsch für Schülerinnen und Schüler mit Zuwanderungsgeschichte' in Nordrhein-Westfalen. ÖDaF-Mitteilungen 32, 34-44.
